Indian equity benchmarks extended their record-breaking streak to a second straight session on Thursday ahead of weekly index futures and options expiry led by gains in ICICI Bank, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, ITC, State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The Sensex rose 185 points to hit a record high of 58,907.78 and the Nifty 50 index touched an all-time high of 17,576.90. Meanwhile, even after strong gains from Wall Street, Asian stocks gave up early gains on Thursday again for a fall, driven by declines in China and Hong Kong, which had pushed the dollar to the lower end of its recent range.
As of 9:23 am, the Sensex was up 114 points at 58,838 and the Nifty was up 42 points at 17,562.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.45 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.47 per cent, hitting a 31-year high on Monday.
Back home, buying was visible in twelve of the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange, trading higher with the Nifty FMCG index gaining 1.6 per cent. Nifty Private Bank, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, Realty, PSU Bank, Metal, Auto and Bank indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.
On the other hand, IT, Media and Pharma indices were trading lower.
Mid- and small-cap stocks were also showing interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.3 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent.
ITC was the top Nifty gainer, with the stock rising 7 per cent to Rs 232. IndusInd Bank surged 4 per cent on Wednesday following government relief measures to the telecom sector. IndusInd Bank has a large amount or exposure to Vodafone Idea, which is likely to benefit from the government’s measures.
Bharat Petroleum, Tata Consumer Products, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, State Bank of India, Eicher Motors, Power Grid, UPL and Kotak Mahindra Bank were also gainers.
On the flipside, NTPC, Coal India, Tech Mahindra, Divi’s Labs, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Titan, Bajaj Finance and TCS were among the losers.
Overall market breadth was positive as 1,745 stocks were leading while 918 were falling on the BSE.
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